Automobile headlight



April 13 1926.

1,580,819 L. C. GARMAN ET AL AUTOMOBILE HEADLIGHT Filed Deo. 28 1925 2 sheets-sheet 1 C 1,.. 1. f r\\\\\\ l 1; w 1 l m A: \1\1\\ um W A 1 l\\.\

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1,580,819 PATENT LA'URITZ C. HARMAN AND WALTER M. COLEMAN, OF BALTIMORE, M l: YLAND.

AUTOMOBILE HEADLIGHT.

Application iled December 2Q, 1923. Serial No. 683,115.

To all whom t may concern.'

Be it known that LAURrrz C. GARMAN and `WAL'ann M. COLEMAN, citizens of the United States, residing at Baltimore, in the State of Maryland, have invented certam new and useful Improvements in Automobile Headlights, of which the following 1s a specification.

Ourinvention relates to improvements 1n vehicle lam s and has particular reference to a lamp or use on automobiles..

@ne object of the invention 1s to provide an improved construction of lamp whereby the rays of light will be directed over the road in such a way as to thoroughly illuminate the same for the driver but which will not produce light rays that will be blinding or interfere with the driver of an approaching vehicle from an opposite d1- rection.

Another object of the invention is to provide an improved construction of light-rays projecting means and to also provide a novel arrangement of front lenses.

A further object is to provide an 1mproved construction of lamp-body wherein the interior parts are accessible by reason of a hinged lens-frame and to mount said frame so that it may be swung in either of two directions whereby the lamps may be mounted at either the right or 4left side of the vehicle and thus avoid the necessity of providing right and left lamps.

A still further object is to provide an improved construction of lamp-body wherein the lamp-carrier or mounting may readily be swung from the rear of the body or entirely detached from the latter and utilized to illuminate the engine 'or other parts to the rear of the lamp-body.

Another object of the invention is to provide an improved construction of lamp whereby an expensive or specially designed front lens is not required so that replacement in case of breakage may be made at a minimum cost.

Lamps having round lenses in the front thereof require frequent adjustment of the lenses due to the fact that the lenses, beingl circular, do not remain in roper position, but tend to rotate about t e axis of the lamp. This is particularly annoying and undesirable with those lenses designed to bend or deflect the rejected beam of light in a delinite direction, as the deflected beams will not be vin the desired location unless the drawings, wherein,-

Fig. 1 shows a portion of the front of an an automobile with the improved lamp 05 thereon and shown in perspective as viewed from the front.

Fig. 2 illustrates the attached lamp in perspective as viewed from the rear thereof the same being shown in connection with the hood of an automobile and the lampcarrier or holder -being detached and in use to illuminate the engine parts.

Fig. 3 shows an enlarged vertical sectjioial detail through the improved lamp- Fig. 4 illustrates a vertical cross-sectional detail through the lamp body looking to- Ward the front thereof, as the same would appear if viewed on the lined-4 of Fig. 3. 80

Fig. 5 shows a sectional plan view through the lamp-body, the section being taken on the line-5,-5 of Fig. 4.

Fig. Gillustrates in plan View the top portion of an automobile hood, and mudguard with the improved lamp in place between the two and indicates by full and broken lines the several positions to which the front lens frame and the rear lamp-carrier may be swung without detach-ing either w of the same from the lamp-body, and

Fig. 7 shows the detachedy lamp-body in rear elevation but on a scale similar to that employedv in Figs.` 1, 2 and 6.

Referring to the drawing, the numeral ,Y 10, designates a suitable double prong bracket attached to an automobile frame Structure in any desirable manner and located adjacent to the radiator 11 and wheelguard or fender 12. This bracket 10 is de- 100 signed to rigidly sustain the improved lamp in the manner and by the means hereinafter to be explained.

In carrying out our invention, we provide a lamp-body 13, which may have any de- 105' sired exterior shape, but which in the present instance is of a general rectangular shape inthat it has a top wall 14; a bottom wall 15 and two side walls 16 and 17 respectively;

At the front of the lamp-body there is provided a lens fra-me 1'8 which latter is -pivotally attached to said body and said traine, in the preferred form, is provided with a horizontal cross-bar 19. The frame and cross-bar also have rabbets for the reception of the lenses 21 and 22 and a traineplate 26 seats against the inner marginal. edges of the lenses and is secured to the inner. side of the frame whereby to hold said lenses in place. n

ln practice, we have found 1t advantageous to employ a ground or frosted glass for the upper lens 21 while a clear and good quality of window glass may be employed for the lens 22.

To each side wall 16 and 17 of the lainpbody, we rigidly secure, by rivets, an eyebracket 23, of a hingeY while at eachside of the lens-traine 18, there are provided hingee 7es 24. Suitable bolts 25, pass down through the upper hinge-eye 24, then through the eye-bracket 23 and finally screw into the lower hinge-eye 24 so that the lenstraine 18 will be held in place at the front end of the lainp-body by incans of the two sets of eye-brackets, hinge-eyes and bolts.

.By means of this construction ot' hinging the lens-traine at its opposite sides to the lamp-body, we rovide a lens-frame which maybe swung roin either of its two opposite sides by merely withdrawing the bolt from tliatside which we desire to swing and the result is that the lainp-bodies ina4v be mounted at either side of a vehicle wit iout making them rights and letts.

On the interior oit the lamp-body, as seen best in Figs. 3, 4 and 5 of the drawing, there is rovided a projector traine lwhich directs the light-rays. rllhis traine coniprises two up er vertical side plates 27; two lower vertica side plates 28, an upper tore and att inclined to plate 29 and an inclined lower projecting p ate 30.

The top plate 29 is inclined in a direction reverse to that in which the lower plate 30 is inclined and, kin practice, we prefer to provide thefainder side of said top plate with a light-rays reflecting surface and this refleeting surface is therefore at the rear of the ground or frosted upper lens 2i.

The lower inclined late 30, is preferably a frosted or round gilass and is located at the rear of t e plain lower lens 22 in the :front of the lamp-body; i

By ratei-ence to Figs. 3 and 4 of the drawings it will be noted that the lower edge' ot each upper vertical sideplate 27 and the upper edge ot each lower vertical side plate 28 are each inclined downwardlyv from rear to front and that each of those edges has an out-turned Harige 31 so that the opposite side-edges of the glass plate 30, may 'project between the said iianges 31, and be clamped therebetween by means of threaded fastenings 32.

The entire projector-trame comprising the madera plates 27, 28, 29 and 30 are secured within the la1np-body by means of a connector-bar 33, which latter, as best shown in Fig. 4 of the drawing, extends horizontally beneath the top wall 14 of the lamp-body and is rigidly secured thereto by fastenings 34. rll`he opposite ends 35 of the connector-bar turn down and snugly tit between up-turned flanges or ends 36 ot the inclined top plate 29 so that rivets 37 may be passed through the ends 35 oit the connector-bar; the flanges 36 of the top plate and also through the upper ends of the uppervertical side plates 16 and 17, andthe projector-traine, thus, be rigidly secured in the lamp-body.

At the rear, the lamp-body is enibraced by the flange 38 of a head-plate 39 so that the head-plate is ri idly carried at the rear of the bodv. This lead-plate 39, as clearly shown in Fie. 2 of the drawing, is rovided with a circul r opening 40, the wa l of the opening being slightly beveled as seen in Figs. 3 and 5 of the drawings.

At opposite sides of the circular opening 4t) the head-plate-39 is provided with two spaced-apart hinge-eyes 41 for a purpose that will presently be explained.

To cover the opening 40 there' is provided a circular reflector 42, the forward side 43 of which is concave and the circular edge of which reflector is beveled so as to snugly tit and 'torni a tight 'joint with the beveled edge ot' the circular opening 40 in the head-plate when the reflector is fitted against the latter, as shown in Figs. 3 and 4 of the drawing.

The reflector 42 has a boss 44 projecting rearwardly therefrom through which a pasv sage 45 extends and this passage is provided for the purpose ot retainin a socket-nienr ber 46 in which an electric lamp-bulb 47 may be retained, the wires 48 serving to connect the lamp from any suitable source ot current supply.

Bv reference to Fig. 3 of thel drawing, it will be seen that the axis of the boss 44 and its passage 45, is inclined with respect to a horizontal airis through the lamp-bodv and the concave side ofthe reflector so that the, lamp held in a socket in said passage will have an inclined instead ot a horizontal position at the rear of the said lamp-body.

We have found in practice that by thus positioning the lamp in the reflector and at the'lrear et the plate 30 that we avoid projecting direct glaring rays ahead and that such rays as projectforwardly and laterally through the lower lens 22 are softened or perhaps ltered, as it were, by the section of the inclined, ground or frosted glass 30 which however receives glaring rays from the upper plate 29. 'y

Without going into theories ot'operation, we have found that in actual practice ample light tor illuminating the road both in4 a lengthwise as well as a crosswise direction is projected from a lamp such as is disclosed herein and that all objectionable glare is eliminated.

The reflector is provided at opposite-sides with hinge-lugs 49 which project between the eyes 41 on the head-plate 39 and pins 50 are passed through the eyes and lugs to hold the reflector in place against the headplate.

By means of the eyes 41, lugs 49 and pins 50, the reflector is held in place so that by withdrawing one pin or the other the reflector may be swung away from the opening 40 in either direction and the lamp utilized to project alight rearwardly or `laterally as indicated in full and broken lines in Fig. 6 of the drawing. y

It will also be seen by reference to Fig. 2 of the drawing that by withdrawing both Vpins 50 the reflector 42 may be entirely detached from the head-plate 39 and the reflector with the lamp attached thereto may thus be made somewhat portable, limited only by the length of the wire 48.

Lugs 51 on opposite sides of the lamp body are provided to receive the bracket 10.

The fact that the front and rear closures are hinged to the body avoids the annoyance usually experienced with spring and frictionally held closures or clam mg bands when it is necessary to openthe amp to replace the-bulb, or for any other reason.

Having described our invention, we

"claim,- Y

1. In a vehicle lamp the combination with and a lamp in front of the reflector.

2. In a vehic1e lampthe combination with a lamp body of a transparent closure at the front of the body, a reflector at the rear of the body, a projector frame inthe body between the transparent closure and the reflector, said projector frame having upper and lower side plates with a flat light reflecting plate extending crosswise of the frame between said upper and lower side plates, and said projector frame also having an upper plate connecting its side plates and a lamp between the projector frame and the reflector.

3. In a vehicle lamp, the combination with a lampbody, of a closure at the front of the body, said closure comprising upper and lower plates, the upper plate being translucent and the lower plate transparent, a frame in the body, said frame having straight side walls which are connected by reversely inclined crosswise flat plates one of which is behind the translucent plate and the other behind the transparent plate, a

reflector at the rear of thel side and cross -i plates of saidframe, and a lamp between said frame and the reflectorf 4. In a vehicle lamp the combination with a lamp body having a front and a rear opening, of a transparent closure at the front of the body, a plate at .the rear of the body and having an opening therein, projector plates in the body between the rear plate and the front transparent closure, hinge members on the body at opposite sides of the said rear opening, a reflector having hinge members at its opposite sides, said reflector closing said rear opening and having its hinge members engaging the hinge members on the body, means for detachably engaging said hinge members so the reflector may be swung lLAURITZ C. GARMAN.

WALTER M. COLEMAN. 

